@Levi - I moved to Blacksburg, VA from that same neighborhood in 1988. The house in Blacksburg was new, had a bigger garage, bigger kitchen, and one more bedroom, cost about 15% more than the Madison House (built in the 1920's.) Taxes were less than half. School's in Madison were much more expensive (though no better) and Madison wasn't into Virginia's solar powered snow removal.

You know, I was thinking about your comment about preferring to read Death In Venice than visiting Venice, and I have to agree that I would not trade having read Pete Dexter's Deadwood for visiting Deadwood.

I haven't read it for a while, but when I did I marveled at the sustained level of artistry of that novel. Somebody here got me to read Blood Meridian, but I think that Betamax writes less turgid prose and the story is just about taking away the myth of the old west. Whatever the west was, the myth is a valuable thing to America.

I love those typical Upper Midwest neighborhoods- it looks very much like the one I grew up in in St. Paul. What do you call the strip of grass between sidewalk and street? We called it the 'boulevard'.